NYSE Euronext is a member of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and today — World AIDS Day — we and many, many other companies have signed onto the following “Pledge to End HIV Discrimination and Stigma:”

As a member of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, my company is committed to fight HIV/AIDS discrimination and stigma in our workplace.

We pledge that our hiring, promotion and retention decisions will not be influenced by an individual’s actual or perceived HIV status.

We pledge to take prompt and meaningful action to improve our performance should we determine it falls short of these goals.

Recognizing the power of leadership by example, we pledge to use every opportunity to encourage other business leaders to make the same commitment.

Can companies put words such as these into action to break down barriers and offer opportunity? They can, and they must. The financial-services and technology industries, which historically have not been the most open and inclusive, know that as well as or better than most.

I see the pledge as consistent with our corporate commitment to diversity, which is one of our core values. Inside our company, we see diversity as a means of ensuring our business competitiveness and success, as well as a means of signaling the importance of openness and inclusiveness in our markets and our industry.

I see as well that we’re in good company on this pledge; following is the list of CEOs/ companies that have signed on:

Miles D. White, Abbott
Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, Access Bank Plc
Gilles Pelisson, Accor
Cynthia Carroll, Anglo American plc
Margery Kraus, APCO Worldwide
Anne Lauvergeon, AREVA Group
Kabelo Antony Ebineng, Associated Fund Administrators Botswana (Pty) Ltd
David R Brennan, AstraZeneca
Rahul Bajaj, Bajaj Auto
Peter Munk, Barrick Gold Corporation
Werner Wenning, Bayer AG
Edward J. Ludwig, BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company)
Vimal B.Shah, Bidco Oil Refineries Limited
Stephane Bancel, bioMérieux
Birger Sorensen, Bionor Immuno
Debra L. Lee, Black Entertainment Television (BET)
Bill Downe, BMO Financial Group
Dr. Alessandro Banchi, Boehringer Ingelheim
Shumeet Banerji, Booz & Company
Tony Hayward, BP
Michael T. Dan, The Brink’s Company
James Cornelius, Bristol-Myers Squibb
Michael Predeaux, British American Tobacco
Mark Penn, Burson-Marsteller
Dave O’Reilly, Chevron Corporation
Gerald T. McCaughey, CIBC
Vikram Pandit, Citigroup
Muhtar Kent, The Coca-Cola Company
Samer Khoury, Consolidated Contractors International Company S.A.L. (CCC)
Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Daimler AG
N. F. Oppenheimer, De Beers
Blackie Marole, Debswana
Michael Dell, Dell
James H. Quigley, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
Gerald Mahinda, East African Breweries Limited
Gennady Gazin, EastOne LLC
Richard Edelman, Edelman
Christian Kemp Griffin, EDUN
John Lechleiter, Eli Lilly and Company
Phirwa Jacob Maroga, Eskom
Martin Vial, Europ Assistance Holding
Rex Tillerson, Exxon Mobil Corporation
Jacqueline Mugo, Federation of Kenyan Employers
Glen K. Murphy, Gap Inc.
Jonathan D. Klein, Getty Images
Alexander Saint-Amand, Gerson Lehrman Group
Andrew P. Witty, GlaxoSmithKline
Dong Soo Hur, GS Caltex Corporation
P. Igathe, Haco Industries Ltd
William A. Haseltine, Haseltine Global Health
Jean-Francois van Boxmeer, Heineken N.V.
Richard Plepler, Home Box Office (HBO)
Victor Y. Yuan, Horizon Research Group
Frank Ireri, Housing Finance Company of Kenya Limited
Anthony L. Howard, Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd
Heather Reisman, Indigo Books & Music Inc.
Corrado Passera, Intesa Sanpaolo
Jena Gardner, JG Black Book of Travel
William C. Weldon, Johnson & Johnson
Gerard J. Inzerillo, Kerzner International
Derek J. Oatway, KK Security (Kenya Kazi Services Ltd)
Bruno Lafont, Lafarge
John Anderson, Levi Strauss & Co.
Beatrice Dautresme, L’Oréal
John Demsey, MAC Cosmetics / MAC AIDS Fund
Ian E.L. Davis, McKinsey & Company
Richard Clark, Merck & Co., Inc.
L W Nkuhlu, Metropolitan
Dennis Pinto, Micato Safaris
Samir Modi, Modicare
William H. Roedy, MTV Networks
Robert J. Coury, Mylan Inc.
Gary Ginsberg, News Corporation
Mark Parker, Nike, Inc.
David Stern, National Basketball Association (NBA)
Daniel Vasella, M.D., Novartis
Duncan L. Niederauer, NYSE Euronext
Marcia Silverman, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
Douglas A Michels, OraSure Technologies
Jeff Kindler, Pfizer Inc.
Christie Hefner, Playboy Enterprises Inc.
Naresh S. Mehta, Power Technics
Neil Mehta, Premier Medical Corporation
Maurice Levy, Publicis
Malvinder Mohan Singh, Ranbaxy
Thomas H. Glocer, Reuters
Tom Albanese, Rio Tinto
Simon Cooper, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company
Gordon M. Nixon, Royal Bank of Canada
Dr. Ganesh P. Rane, RRR Industries
Matthew J. Wright, Russell Reynolds Associates
Graham Mackay, SABMiller plc
Fred Hassan, Schering-Plough Corporation
Rick Waugh, Scotiabank Group
Ai Lianghua, Shanghai Desano Pharmaceuticals Holding Company Ltd
Pete Ruegger, Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett
Christian Jourquin, Solvay
Gary Watts, SSL International plc
Clive Tasker, Standard Bank
Peter Sands, Standard Chartered Bank
Hiromasa Yonekura, Sumitomo Chemical
Scott Mullin, TD Bank Financial Group
Carol Johnston, Times Media Group
Christophe de Margerie, Total
John Noel, Travel Guard
Marie-Christine de Saragosse, TV5
Patrick Cescau, Unilever
Henri Proglio, Veolia Environment
Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, Vestergaard Frandsen
Phillippe Dauman, Viacom International
Sir Richard Branson, Virgin
Martin Winterkorn, Volkswagen
S. Shiryaev, Vostok-Service
Lev Partskhaladze, XXI Century Investments
Mick Davis, Xstrata
Dr. Subhi Quraishi, ZMQ Software Systems

Your thoughts, as always, are welcome.

A hat tip to bloggers Mad Professah and David Mixner for spotting this news.